CHAPTER VI.
DEAN DUNHAM FINDS HIS UNCLE.
When Adin Dunham reached the fork in the road from which there were two different routes to Waterford, he halted his horse in indecision.
"Seems to me as if I'd rather go over the creek road," he said to himself. "I don't know why 'tis that I don't fancy goin' through the woods to-day. It's a silly fancy, no doubt, for I've gone that way hundreds of times, and I told the squire I'd go that way, and I'll do it, or he'll think strange of it."
So he turned to the left instead of the right, and continued his journey. Is it true that we have presentiments of coming evil? This was at any rate the case with Adin Dunham. He felt a growing uneasiness, especially when he drew near the tract of woods through which the road ran for nearly quarter of a mile.
"What is the matter with me?" he asked, as he wiped the perspiration from his brow. "I suppose it must be because I have so much money with me. I wish I had taken a check."
Then he tried to laugh it off, but he could not drive away the feeling of uneasiness. Somehow the thought of robbers would present itself to his mind.
"I'd give a five-dollar bill if I was safe at home," he said to himself.
He had reached the middle point of the woods, and was beginning to breathe easier. Neither before nor behind was any one in sight.